


Paper

by minniesundays



Series: Songfics [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29702859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minniesundays/pseuds/minniesundays
Summary: Songfic based on "Paper" by LANYShe'd probably regret it for the rest of her life. But it was too late.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Songfics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2182887
Comments: 3





	Paper

She’d probably regret it for the rest of her life. But it was too late. She married him. She chose this life. She chose the life, she chose the marriage, she chose him.

This life wasn’t the one that she wanted, but what more was there to it? She had such a big crush on him back at Hogwarts. She could trace her feelings back to fourth year. Her feelings could be tracked throughout their school years, even showing up in each other’s Amortentias. Except then he broke her heart getting with Lavender. But then he got poisoned and called for her.

The Prophet had a field day when the announced their engagement, not even a year after the Battle of Hogwarts. She was ecstatic when he asked, she loved him, he loved her, what else was there? The Prophet agreed, Witch Weekly agreed, even the Quibbler agreed. Articles written for months after the engagement.

_Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, two-thirds of the Golden Trio, announce engagement!_

_The best friends of hero, Harry Potter, set to marry before the year’s end!_

_The Golden Trio is upgrading from friends to family! Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley engaged, Harry Potter and younger sister of Ron, Ginevra Weasley, follow suit!_

She couldn’t deny it. They looked good on paper. Articles were spouted out like a broken record, with no end in sight. She was overwhelmed by the response she was greeted with. She’d get shouts of congratulations in The Ministry, questions about her dress on her weekends in Diagon Alley, she couldn’t escape people rooting for her and Ron.

At first, she enjoyed it. She could do without the attention, she had things she had to get done when she was out, but she liked the support she received. She loved Ron and he loved her. What more was there?

That mindset worked. For a while, at least. The two of them had a fantastic wedding – one where she failed to avoid wearing Molly’s old gown. They had an even better Honeymoon, traveling around Europe and exploring both the wizarding and the muggle communities. Ron had previously bought a small, but homey, house near Grimmauld so he could be near Harry and Ginny. She liked his place, so she sold her flat.

But now, it’d been a couple months since she’d moved in all her things to their little home. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She rearranged her books almost a dozen times, she changed the wall colors three times, she bought new sheets for their bed. Nothing she did fixed the heaviness in her gut. It didn’t feel like home.

It seemed as though Ron felt the same way. He’d leave early and come home late. On the weekends he went out with friends from the Auror Department. She was never invited.

If she was still awake when he got home, they’d resolve to ignore each other while laying still inches apart. They had gotten a smaller bed. They wanted to be close together when they slept. But now -- now it felt too small. She felt like she’d suffocate next to him.

She ignored it. She couldn’t talk to anyone. Harry was _their_ best friend, not her’s. She couldn’t bring him in the middle of whatever was going on. She definitely couldn’t talk to Ginny. Ginny may be her best friend, but she was Ron’s sister. She couldn’t tell her that being married to him was beginning to feel like she was wasting her time. Like it was her new nightmare. Like she was stuck with him.

It changed from silent treatments to outright fights. She couldn’t even count how many fights they had the last week on two hands. She also couldn’t tell you what they were even about anymore. They’d grown to resent each other. Every little thing the other did was enough to ignite an argument.

He hated that she worked so much, that she was continuously choosing her career and her ambitions over him and making a family. He wanted kids. She couldn’t have kids.

She found out after coming back from their Honeymoon.

She had realized shortly before their wedding that she hadn’t had her period in a very long time. It wasn’t that abnormal. She lost it sometime when they were on the run. All the stress and malnutrition. But it should’ve been back. She went to see both a muggle doctor and a wizarding healer.

The muggle doctor ran lots of tests. He told her that while everything in her body seemed normal and healthy, she was infertile. He couldn’t tell her the cause, just that her ovaries had blackened and were nothing more than dead tissue. He offered surgery to remove them.

The healer at St. Mungo’s told her the cause. She had been cursed with some very dark magic that was meant to prevent her from continuing her line. It didn’t take Hermione very long to deduce that it likely happened in Malfoy Manor. It would make sense, she had already lost her period, so she wouldn’t have noticed an immediate change. And Bellatrix was more than capable of magic of that caliber.

She was infertile. She told Ron as soon as the doctors told her. Two days after their Honeymoon.

He hadn’t reacted horribly, but it hadn’t been a good reaction either.

_“What do you mean? How did this happen?”_

_“They said I was cursed. I’m guessing it was Bellatrix that night at the Manor.”_

_“Can they fix it?”_

_“They said they didn’t have anything they could do now, but that it was an interesting case and some of their healers were interested in starting research. They asked if it was okay to try to solve it, they were going to contact some Potions Masters to help the healers research.”_

_“So, they might be able to fix it? You might still be able to have children?” His voice broke from the sobs threatening to escape him._

_“Healer Fawcett said I shouldn’t get my hopes up. This is a new case and that if they are able to figure out a cure, it might take years. Or it might turn up dry and unsolvable, at least during my time.”_

He had left after that. He was crying and said he needed to go. When he returned, he was drunk and ignored her. The next day he apologized and said he should’ve been there for her. The next week was the official start of the frost between them.

He resented her for her inability to have children, she knew it. He had always wanted kids, a family of his own.

She hated him for holding her back, for being the reason she settled. She loved him, but she wasn’t sure she was in love with him. When they left school and the war behind, what was left for them? They didn’t agree on future plans, they each wanted different things from life.

He hated her ambition. He said maybe she should’ve been placed in Slytherin with her constant need to move up the branches at work.

All the while, the newspapers still occasionally printed an article surrounding the beautiful love story. The poster kids for love.

They wouldn’t know any different, they couldn’t know any different. They were fooling everyone in their lives.

No one heard their fights, no one saw the ice building between them.

They’d go out and meet their friends. Hermione would throw on that black dress Ron liked. They posed together, smiles etched onto their faces, hands intertwined. They were good at pretending. They had a perfect life according to the papers.

They’d get home and fall apart. Screaming and fighting at each other before Ron stormed off to a bar and Hermione was left in the middle of their house that wasn’t her home.

_“Aren’t you tired of lying?”_

_“What are you saying?"_

_“Ron, I’m so tired of lying to our friends. We got everyone fooled, they think we have a perfect life. We don’t! We’re either cold to each other or spitting fire! Aren’t you tired of lying and pretending?”_

_“You’ve been wasting my time.”_

_“Ron, we shouldn’t be together. Why are we still with each other? Is it because we look good on paper? We’re not happy.”_

_“You can go ahead and move your stuff out.”_

Glancing around at the home that was never hers, emptied of her things, Hermione couldn’t even begin to feel sad. She was disappointed that this was their ending. She’s sure that this will end up in the papers too though. It’ll probably look just as good on paper as their pretend happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> I was at work and this song came on and I was inspired. I hope you enjoyed this oneshot! Sorry for the angst and thank you for reading!!


End file.
